Super Happy Lightning Talks

[Luke Closs]

Lots of pros and cons to doing talks earlier on SHHH.  I'll weigh in my 2¢ as SHHH benevolent dictator and frequent talk organizer.

Typically we like to do the talks quite late so there are fewer people, otherwise it can be unwieldly.  Part of that is because I try not to filter talks - I leave it up to speakers if they'd like to talk or not.  But this can make the talks too long. Last night was pretty long, (~28 talks?) and we also did the wheel robot stuff and then it turned into a town hall.

I try not to filter this too much because it's one of the rare times we get together as a group to give each other a few minutes of focused group attention to entertain.

When we have a new place, i think we could experiment with different structures for the event. I'm certainly open to discussing ideas.

My questions for the group to weigh in on:

1) Talks - do they go on too long?

2) Talks - should the host moderate/filter/choose who gets to speak or keep it open?

ISTM that if we have talks earlier, more people will want to talk and they'll be even longer, unless we filter somehow...

Best,

Luke

On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 1:43 PM, Johnathan <rolle...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm wondering what everyone thinks about doing the lightning talks & etc earlier in the evening? Some of us can't stay so late (leave by 11) and it's a shame we had to miss out on the majority of the evening. It would be nice if some of the activities started perhaps around 10-ish?

 

On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 1:15 PM, Alex Cruise <al...@cluonflux.com> wrote:

That was a fun evening, thanks folks!  

In case anyone is still curious about Scala despite my hamfisted introduction, here are some URLs. :)

http://www.scala-lang.org/ 

http://docs.scala-lang.org/

http://www.meetup.com/vancouver-scala/

-0xe1a

[June Kim]

At other networking events that I've been to, the talks are ~30s long, and that's enough time to let everyone know whether they'd be interesting to talk to after for a more private conversation. Longer talks, called spotlights in some events, are usually designated before the event and tend to be prepared.

--

June Kim

Camvy Company Videos
7423 Pandora Dr, Burnaby, BC, V5A 3W1
june...@camvy.com | 778.833.1191 | camvy.com

[Dan Royer]

2 minutes is a very nice slice of time.  Maybe skip people who don't know what they want to talk about?
Before the event they have weeks to think of something and get ready.

Dan Royer : Marginallyclever.com : Robots & 3D Printing : +1 604 916 2281

---

From: june...@camvy.com
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:23:15 -0700
Subject: Re: Super Happy Lightning Talks
To: vhs-g...@lists.hackspace.ca

[Luke Closs]

30 secs is good for introductions, but it's not enough time to entertain.  The purpose isn't to share what you're working on, it's to entertain.

[Johnathan]

Starting earlier means more time for talks =)

 

Waiting later until there are less people means less community. You'll be segregating those who have to leave early because of public transit schedules, etcetera. We want everyone to feel they are part of the community, don't we? If the number of talks is an issue, we can have a fixed number of slots and people who want to talk can sign up. Those who don't talk can still participate and benefit from simply having the opportunity to listen.

[Jeff Davis]

On 2013-03-25 04:10PM, Luke Closs wrote:
> 1) Talks - do they go on too long?

They went on too long on Saturday, IMHO (although I did enjoy them).
Maybe we can limit the allotted time to 45 minutes or so.

> 2) Talks - should the host moderate/filter/choose who gets to speak or
> keep it open?

T = maximum total time allotted for all lightning talks (in minutes)
n = number of 2-minute talks, where n < T/2 due to intros and applause

Select n speakers semi-randomly from the pool, perhaps weighting certain
speakers (e.g. first-timers, those with important news/updates) so that
they are more likely to be given a slot.

Jeff


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